FM3 Now Shipping

DaveO said:
I’m totally onboard with topic, I was sure I’d have one by end of summer last year, that came and went & so did every other milestone holiday in 2019 here we are almost a year from the announcement and its finally shipping but now nixed with by a virus pandemic! My only prayer is everyone be safe... the FM3 is not important to me anymore!
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I'm with you on that one. I desperately wanted the FM3 for touring from Spring onwards. Now all tours have been cancelled or rescheduled for Autumn. Of course, that is not a given either.
 
karlic said:
Thanks. It was just surprising to see people were still on a wait list for the AX8 after production stopped.
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I think what happened was the AX8 sold out, and people were then signing up to order once it was restocked (ie, less a waitlist and more a backordered situation). However, fractal then discontinued the AX8 instead of producing more (I can't remember if it was the AX8 or FX II or both, but I seem to remember the DSP chips being discontinued for one which really prevented them from making any more. They're not really large enough to order 10000 DSP chips just for themselves to continue a years old product).

So the backordered AX8 people just got put on the FM3 list when the FM3 was accounced, but their original request date was respected, meaning they ended up first. The people who emailed to say "The AX8 just got discontinued, could I get put on the list for whatever is coming next?" also got added. But since it's now all one big list I doubt they've broken it down to"AX8 or prognosticator" order, and instead just have a list.

They're not going from list 1 to list 2 to list 3, they're just going down the list and saying "We're almost through the dates before April 23rd of people who got on before the announcement".
 
Snouttrout said:
How do you like the AA6? I’ve been thinking about getting one of those for a while now.
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I've got one, capable little box and I preferred it over the HX Stomp as a gigbag unit. I just found the amp sims felt better to play through

I got a III in December and sold my AX8 so was using the AA6 for everything out of the house. Having gotten used to the III the AA6 just sounded lame in comparison so ended up taking the III out for a gig last week in a funk/disco band just using clean tones 99.99% of the time - I felt like I was using an F1 car to pop to the shops, but it was a great tone

But to come back to your question, it is a capable little unit. Not as good as Fractal but then it's under half the price, but certainly something to consider if you're waiting for an FM3
 
I had AA3 and I agree, it's better modeling than Helix. (Helix better effects)
By subscribing to the FM3 list I sold AA3 and now I have nothing to play on I still have a laptop and S Gear It will be a long time to wait.
The epidemic begins in my country.
 
Donnie B. said:
A constant with a majority folks commenting on these are that the Marshall's are standout.

Agree? I've never heard/played one.
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The 800 is very good, can't really remember the Plexi but think it's good.

The Cornford is the best Marshallly thi g in there, sounds great

I actually have an Amplifirebox too that lives in my gigbag, I'd love Fractal to sometime make a real simple unit along the lines of the AFB and Stomp
 
ak301 said:
The Cornford is the best Marshallly thi g in there, sounds great
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Thanks.
Owned a first generation Harley many moons ago. Amazing amp - wish I still had it.
I have to head over and check out what Victory is up to - Martin's new gig.
 
ak301 said:
I'd love Fractal to sometime make a real simple unit along the lines of the AFB and Stomp
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I don't know if you tired one, but I recently bought a Strymon "Iridium" for the meantime for that reason. It perfect for on the fly like an AFB.

Obviously it's not as versatile as my Axe FX 3 or AX8, but it does fit in a gig bag. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it covers my basic essential amp needs (Fender, Vox, Marshall).

I'm using it "without" the cabinet simulators and with a Seymour Duncan Power Stage 170 into a real cabinet (Mesa 1*12 Thiele). It's not bad either with sims into an FRFR cabinet (Accugroove Latte), very impressive.

I did buy an Amplifire a few years back, but I returned it. I personally found it unusable... but that's IMHO.

Regardless, it's a stop-gap as I patiently wait for my name to come up on the waitlist.
 
Sharka said:
I don't know if you tired one, but I recently bought a Strymon "Iridium" for the meantime for that reason. It perfect for on the fly like an AFB.

Obviously it's not as versatile as my Axe FX 3 or AX8, but it does fit in a gig bag. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it covers my basic essential amp needs (Fender, Vox, Marshall).

I'm using it "without" the cabinet simulators and with a Seymour Duncan Power Stage 170 into a real cabinet (Mesa 1*12 Thiele). It's not bad either with sims into an FRFR cabinet (Accugroove Latte), very impressive.

I did buy an Amplifire a few years back, but I returned it. I personally found it unusable... but that's IMHO.

Regardless, it's a stop-gap as I patiently wait for my name to come up on the waitlist.
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Yeah I am aware of the Iridium.
Thing is, this is my second go around with the Atomic stuff. I had an AA3 a couple of years ago and really didn't take to it, sold it when the HX Stomp came out, didn't really bond with that (The AX8 had ruined me for other units), and then I'd heard Atomic had really improved their firmware.
My AFB was on eBay dirt cheap, so I bought it and was blown away by the improvement so found an AA6 dirt cheap too, paid less for both than for a new AA6 from Andertons here in England, so really pleased with both units.

If you've tried Atomic before and been disappointed I'd recommend giving them another go, as I said earlier, they're not in Fractals level, but they're very good value
 
If you are not too bothered about massive effects, I got good tones from both the Atomic and HX Stomp. It is 80% about the quality of the IR. Of course the effects section is where Fractal leaves them behind.
 
I had then returned an HX Stomp over the last month. Actually some very solid sounds with it, especially with some good IRs. Being limited to 6 blocks just meant you had to be careful with your choices. Their Friedman model is phenomenal, and since the HBE/c45/saturation is all in the same model you can easily switch settings between snapshots. I had a whole range of sounds with just it configured.

Ultimately I moved away from it because:
  • Footswitch configuration seems more flexible on Axe FX. Expression and external footswitches use a TRS-to-two-TS setup, which is a bit harder to find expression pedals for, and you couldn't assign the mode change (Stomp/Presets/Snapshots/etc) to one of the internal switches, just external.
  • I wanted the larger range of amp models in the Axe FX, and some of the specific models that are only in the Axe (Mark IIC++!).
  • Added flexibility of setup compared to the 6 block limit on the stomp
  • More frequent updates
  • I'm really far down the FM3 list, so by ordering the Axe FX III instead I had to do something to offset the cost
But there was definitely a part of me that thought about keeping it as a portable rig/holdover until I could get an FM3 invite, but I was still in the return window and getting a full refund was too tempting.
 
IronSean said:
I had then returned an HX Stomp over the last month. Actually some very solid sounds with it, especially with some good IRs. Being limited to 6 blocks just meant you had to be careful with your choices. Their Friedman model is phenomenal, and since the HBE/c45/saturation is all in the same model you can easily switch settings between snapshots. I had a whole range of sounds with just it configured.

Ultimately I moved away from it because:
  • Footswitch configuration seems more flexible on Axe FX. Expression and external footswitches use a TRS-to-two-TS setup, which is a bit harder to find expression pedals for, and you couldn't assign the mode change (Stomp/Presets/Snapshots/etc) to one of the internal switches, just external.
  • I wanted the larger range of amp models in the Axe FX, and some of the specific models that are only in the Axe (Mark IIC++!).
  • Added flexibility of setup compared to the 6 block limit on the stomp
  • More frequent updates
  • I'm really far down the FM3 list, so by ordering the Axe FX III instead I had to do something to offset the cost
But there was definitely a part of me that thought about keeping it as a portable rig/holdover until I could get an FM3 invite, but I was still in the return window and getting a full refund was too tempting.
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I'm on the FM3 list and own a III, but I recently borrowed a friend's Stomp and was pleasantly surprised. Some of the amps sound great (I was particularly impressed with the Friedman too) and most of the effects are perfectly useable. The 6 block ceiling wasn't as limiting as I had expected.

I too was surprised that the only way to switch modes was to bend over and push the mode button. It would have been nice if pressing two of the footswitches at the same time would toggle between modes. But overall it's an amazing box for the size and price. I definitely prefer my Axe, but the gap wasn't as big as I had expected. I'm not sure what you mean about the expression pedal though, I used a TRS->TRS cable with a Dunlop Mini X and an EV-2 with the Stomp.
 
marshall2553 said:
I'm on the FM3 list and own a III, but I recently borrowed a friend's Stomp and was pleasantly surprised. Some of the amps sound great (I was particularly impressed with the Friedman too) and most of the effects are perfectly useable. The 6 block ceiling wasn't as limiting as I had expected.

I too was surprised that the only way to switch modes was to bend over and push the mode button. It would have been nice if pressing two of the footswitches at the same time would toggle between modes. But overall it's an amazing box for the size and price. I definitely prefer my Axe, but the gap wasn't as big as I had expected. I'm not sure what you mean about the expression pedal though, I used a TRS->TRS cable with a Dunlop Mini X and an EV-2 with the Stomp.
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You can assign an external footswitch to Page Up or Page Down, just not any of the internal switches. But I'd have happily converted the Tap/Tuner button to Page Up if I could. It's a weird choice to me. And in some of the modes using two at once does do something, for instance pressing and holding the left two will switch from Preset Up/Down to Snapshot Up/Down. But having the same for mode switch would also be nice.

If you use a TRS->TRS then you're only able to use one Footswitch/expression pedal instead of 2. And using a TS cable with a TRS expression pedal often means the pedal value rocks from 0-50-0 from Heel-middle-Toe, instead of 0-100 Heel-Toe. And because you can only assign Page Up/Down to an external footswitch, I wanted both an expression pedal and a footswitch.
 
My HX Stomp is just a portable backup, even though it is impressive for the size. You have to remember that an IR takes up a slot too, so you are down to 4 effects then. But no denying there are some great basic amp sounds to be had.

I am now caught between waiting possibly a long time for an FM3 (waiting list Europe since October 2019), or taking the big financial leap to an Axe FX 3.
 
IronSean said:
You can assign an external footswitch to Page Up or Page Down, just not any of the internal switches. But I'd have happily converted the Tap/Tuner button to Page Up if I could. It's a weird choice to me. And in some of the modes using two at once does do something, for instance pressing and holding the left two will switch from Preset Up/Down to Snapshot Up/Down. But having the same for mode switch would also be nice.

If you use a TRS->TRS then you're only able to use one Footswitch/expression pedal instead of 2. And using a TS cable with a TRS expression pedal often means the pedal value rocks from 0-50-0 from Heel-middle-Toe, instead of 0-100 Heel-Toe. And because you can only assign Page Up/Down to an external footswitch, I wanted both an expression pedal and a footswitch.
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Ah, gotcha. Yeah, I never tried it with an expression pedal and external switch. I wish I had more time with it and I probably should have read the manual. It has its downsides (near the top of that list is the ridiculous power supply), but it would make a great backup rig that would easily fit in a gig bag.
 
I'm on the wait list as of the day it was announced.

At the time, I had an AX8 and a Helix LT. Since then, I sold those both for a Kemper with Remote, then sold that for an Axe 3 + FC6 setup (still have), and over the last couple months I picked up a Headrush Gigboard and HX Stomp to play with.

The Stomp and Gigboard are both neat in different ways, but the Axe 3 is definitely superior in sound, feel, and power. I need to keep something highly portable around for a while so will likely keep the Stomp and sell the Gigboard, but when the new FM3 starts to deliver (I need a headphone jack), I may end up selling all my modelers and moving to that.
 
Tones2 said:
So I know this is absolutely not important given the current state of things in the world, but just curious if Fractal will ship any FM3's this week, or is Fractal shut down?
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You're right, it's not important That should be the least of your worries at this point.

Cliff's message say's it all...
FractalAudio said:
We hope to ship the units with headphone jacks in April. However... the units have been manufactured but are in China and there's a lot of uncertainty due to the coronavirus outbreak.

I know a little about what's going on over there and it's scary. If they get the virus under control then things should ship in April. If they don't you're going to have bigger things to worry about than a shiny new toy.
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